In my family, Sassy’s Bar isn’t just a Portland institution; it’s where my wife and I found ourselves, along with another couple in the beer industry, a week before our son was born. I’m not sure which would be more shocking to some folks—that we went together or that my wife was 10-months pregnant. But... View Article
The Oregon Brewers Guild reports that there were over 200 brands of IPA sold in Portland last year—just IPAs. There are five dozen breweries, give or take, two dozen good-beer bars, and thousands of places to buy craft beer in the city. (Even the dive bars have amazing tap lists.) For the thousands of visitors... View Article
Next week thousands of people who make beer, distribute beer, sell beer, make brewhouses, grow hops, grow barley, culture yeast and write about beer will be in my hometown, Portland, Oregon, for the Craft Brewers Conference. Welcome! As honored guests in our fair city, I hope you have a wonderful time and manage to find... View Article
In 2011—which, depending on your relationship to time, was either recently or long ago—I embarked on my maiden voyage to England. I was doing research for the Beer Bible. When I touched down at Heathrow, there were about 20 breweries in London, and I managed to tour a respectable 10 percent of them. And 20... View Article
Artemisia douglasiana, also known as California mugwort, grows along stream banks up and down the West Coast. Dried and—particularly—burned, it has a distinctive aroma similar to another plant famous in the region, Cannabis sativa. Perhaps for this reason, it creates a pungent, hop-like quality when added to the conditioning tank of a light ale. The... View Article
In my teen years living in Boise, ID, there was general agreement that it took fashion three years to arrive from California. (The more fashionable pegged the number at five years; while most said fashion never came to Idaho.) I am now a gray-whiskered man, but this wasn’t so long ago—the early craft brewing years,... View Article
Ever since the McMenamins chain of brewpubs opened its first location, Barley Mill Pub in Portland, OR, in 1983, brothers Mike and Brian McMenamin have embraced art. For a time, the McMenamins even referred to their brewers, themselves, as artists. Not counting these brewer artists, McMenamins currently employs three full-time artists and several others on... View Article
There’s a spot in Portland, OR, called Meat Cheese Bread that serves permutations of said foodstuffs in a delicious assemblage we now call a “sandwich.” (Thank you, John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, for the eponym if not the origin.) Tasty food matter with moist, flavorful adhesive betwixt bread slices has become a gustatory sensation... View Article
(Press Release) OMAHA, NE—The Celiac Sprue Association (CSA), the largest non-profit celiac support group in America, today announced that Omission Beer has met stringent requirements for earning the organization’s Recognition Seal. The CSA Seal, currently found on more than 1100 product brands, embodies the CSA’s commitment to a consistent, meaningful, and verifiable definition of products that are... View Article
